Spicy Shrimp with Tasso Cream and Green Chile Grit Cakes
This dish combines some of the best New Orleans flavors—shrimp, tasso, creamy grits, and a bit of spice—in an elegant, satisfying presentation. This dish is so popular that Donald Link, my partner and the chef at Herbsaint, couldn’t take it off the menu even if he wanted to. If you are serving this for a dinner party, make the grits the day before or in the morning, and the rest of the dish will come together quickly that night.
Recipe information
Yield
makes 4 servings
Ingredients
Green Chile Grit Cakes
Tasso Cream
Shrimp
Preparation
Green Chile Grit Cakes
Step 1
Lightly butter or oil an 8-inch square pan. Dice the roasted pepper and set aside. Heat the water, milk, and salt in a 2-quart saucepan over medium-high heat. Bring to a boil, then whisk in the grits and cook for 1 minute. Lower the heat to medium-low and cook, stirring occasionally, 30–40 minutes, until the grits have lost their raw taste and begin to hold together and pull away from the sides of the pan. Add a little water if the grits get too thick. Stir in the butter, roasted pepper, and cheese. Pour onto the prepared pan to a thickness of about 1/2 inch. Press plastic wrap directly on the surface of the grits and chill thoroughly in the refrigerator, about 1 hour.
Step 2
Cut the cold grits into triangles or rounds, and brown them in butter in a nonstick skillet over high heat for about 2 minutes on each side. You can heat the grits all the way through for 8-10 minutes in the skillet, or simply brown them, then transfer to a baking sheet. Heat in a hot oven for about 10 minutes when ready to serve.
Tasso Cream
Step 3
Melt 1 tablespoon butter in a large skillet over medium heat. Add the onion, celery, tasso, thyme, cayenne, paprika, and garlic and cook until vegetables are soft, 3–5 minutes. Add the remaining tablespoon butter, then sprinkle the flour over the vegetables and stir to combine. Whisk in the Shrimp Stock, bring it to a boil, then lower the heat and reduce the liquid by half. Add the cream and simmer until the sauce is thickened to a creamy consistency, about 4 minutes. Finish sauce with the salt, pepper, and the lemon juice and hot sauce, to taste. Keep it warm while you cook the shrimp.
Shrimp
Step 4
Heat the oil in a medium skillet over medium-high heat. When the oil is shimmering, add the shrimp, season with salt, and cook, stirring, for 2–3 minutes until almost cooked through. Pour in the tasso cream and stir to coat shrimp. Lower the heat to medium and cook about 2 more minutes. Taste and adjust seasoning.
Step 5
To serve, place one portion of grits on each plate and spoon the shrimp and cream over the top. Garnish with sliced scallions.
Stone-Ground Grits
Step 6
Technically, grits can be just about any coarsely ground grain, but usually they are made from corn. There’s a pronounced difference in flavor between quick-cooking commercial grits and a stone-ground product. Stone-grinding corn preserves its sweet flavor and results in a coarse, satisfying texture (that takes a bit longer to cook). Stone-ground grits are available at most specialty food stores, or you can find them at www.hoppinjohns.com (see Sources, p. 384).
note
Step 7
Chef Donald says that whenever you make sauce with a roux in the base, like this one, always add your liquids in stages so that you don’t make your sauce too thin. Sauce is always easier to thin out, by adding a bit more liquid, than to thicken.
